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Hot Octopuss becomes first sex toy brand to exhibit at Naidex

Hot Octopuss becomes first sex toy brand to exhibit at Naidex

Hot Octopuss became the first sex toy company to exhibit at Naidex in September. Running on the 15th and 16th of the month at the NEC, Birmingham, Naidex describes itself as ‘Europe’s most established event for supporting independent living, showcasing wide-ranging solutions to improve mobility and accessibility’ within the disabled community.

Exhibiting at Naidex is part of Hot Octopuss’s disability and inclusion strategy, which is being spearheaded by creative director Kelly Gordon. She said: “There are more than 20 million people living with disabilities in the UK alone. Yet, when it comes to sex, there is a massive supply gap when it comes to effective products, advice, and information for disabled people. Being given the opportunity to exhibit at such an important and prestigious event such as Naidex sends a powerful and progressive message to the disabled community that sex is for us and shouldn’t be something that disabled people can’t pursue or shouldn’t want.”

She added: “The demand is so large for these products that we had a queue at our stand at all times on both days. It was amazing to talk to our customers about how our products would work for them and often start them on their journey into self-pleasure. As a disabled person who wasn’t represented or viewed as a sexual person growing up it was an honour to bring sexuality to the disabled community.”

Kelly also hosted the live Hot Octopuss Pleasure Rebels show with guests Storme Toolis, an actress and sex positive disabled person, and Josh Wintersgill an entrepreneur in the disability space. They discussed all things casual sex, relationships and disability, and Kelly said: “Our panellists were so vulnerable and I felt genuinely emotional at the end when we heard the crowd applaud our honesty and the comments we received after the show just proved how needed this kind of conversation is.”

Hot Octopuss COO Julia Margo added: “Hot Octopuss has a proud history of diversity and inclusion and taking our place at the recent Naidex conference really epitomises this. We hope that other sex toy companies follow our lead to exhibit at future events because it is so important that we talk to everybody, especially disabled people, about their sex lives and sexual pleasure.”

The next Naidex exhibition will be held on 6th – 7th July 2022 at the NEC. More details can be found at www.naidex.co.uk